THE INNER CONSULTATION

The Inner Consultation is an approach to the teaching and learning of consultation skills based on cultivating the doctor’s ability to pay high quality attention to certain information-rich moments in the consultation.

The method is a development of the ‘Inner Game’ approach to sports coaching described by Timothy Gallwey in the fields of tennis, golf and skiing.

In sport, peak performance is often impeded by the intrusion of self-critical thoughts.

The solution is to direct the player’s attention onto external events such as the moment of bounce of the tennis ball, which are relevant to performance but emotionally neutral.

The traditional approach to teaching consulting skills has been to identify a fairly large number of component skills (such as asking open-ended questions, checking for understanding) and tasks (such as achieving rapport, agreeing a management plan).

While such models are descriptively valid, conscious determination to apply them in real life can come to dominate the doctor’s thoughts during the encounter with the patient, to the detriment of both.

Alternatively the doctor, in the heat of the encounter, forgets all about his intended performance and just responds spontaneously.

In contrast to a skills-based approach, the Inner Consultation is a technique not of instruction,but for releasing communication abilities which by this stage in the doctor’s career have already been installed.

MINIMAL CUES

Patients signal, in various verbal and non-verbal ways, those moments in the consultation when important things are happening – when they are thinking seriously, or avoiding sensitive issues.

If the doctor’s attention is fully on the patient at such times, appropriate responses will be made without forcing. But the doctor has first to recognize these information rich moments.

They are signalled by distinct clusters of physical signs – minimal cues.

GAMBITS

– the ‘rehearsed’ opening remarks made by the patient, defining his or her starting position for the consultation. E.g. “I’ve had a pain in my stomach for 2 weeks.”

CURTAIN – RAISERS

– the ‘un-rehearsed’ unguarded remarks which often precede the planned gambit, into which may leak information about the patients emotional state, attitudes or hidden agenda. E.g. “You’ll probably just say it’s my nerves; anyway…I’ve had a pain in my stomach for 2 weeks.”

INTERNAL SEARCH

– a cluster of non-verbal signs indicating that serious thought is in process, and that whatever is next said may be of greater significance than average.

(a) move around very rapidly, as in REM sleep, as the thinker scans numerous memories, or

(b) remains steadily fixed in one direction, usually to one side, either upwards or downwards, or

(c) become defocused, as if gazing into the far distance.

TURBULANCE

– a noticeable increase in the energy level of speech. As the speaker approaches ‘dangerous territory’, the flow of speech becomes more agitated than before, erratic, fragmented, with abrupt changes of pace, pitch and volume.

SPEECH CENSORING

– various ways in which the speaker consciously or unconsciously attempts to avoid going into explicit detail about matters that might be sensitive, embarrassing or worrying.

Forms of speech censoring include:

Hesitations & Prevarications

– long pauses, “Errm..”, “Well..”Imprecisions– using vague words and phrases such as “things like that”, or “you know what I mean”.

Non sequiturs

– remarks that don’t appear to make sense, because intermediate connecting thoughts have been left out.

E.g. “My period was late so I ate lots of fruit,” (omitting the intermediate “I thought constipation could be the reason.”)

APPLICATION

In the Inner Consultation, the doctor practices alerting himself or herself to the constant flow of minimal cues emitted by the patient, using them as signals (should attention have wandered) to redirect full attention onto the patient.

lt is NOT necessary to try to interpret the significance of every minimal cue; if there is significant meaning, it will be recognized without conscious effort, just as we all do in everyday social conversation.

The benefit arises from the fact that the doctor, in endeavouring to spot minimal cues, changes the quality of the attention paid to the patient.

From this improved attention come more astute perception, better communication and more effective consulting.

A ‘5 – CHECKPOINT’ MODEL OF CONSULTING

Think of every consultation as a journey with 5 stops en route. Or a better image would be of an orienteering course, with 5 checkpoints, at each of which you have to report before proceeding to the next.

How you get from one to the next is up to you – a matter of your own skill and judgement – but a map and some basic fitness training help.

As you move through the consultation from start to finish, direct a part of your free attention towards attaining each of the following ‘Checkpoints’ in turn.

1. CONNECTING

– achieving a working rapport with the patient; getting on the same wavelength.

Sometimes this is easy, but may have to be consciously worked at.

The usual problem is suppressing our own internal dialogue, prejudices and assumptions.

This is best done by non-­judgementally noticing the patient’s physical, verbal, para-verbal, non-verbal, postural and behavioural characteristics.

It may then be helpful intentionally to ‘match’ some of these by adjusting your own behaviour accordingly.

The best way of checking that you have a clear understanding, and thereby reducing the chances of missing the underlying concerns, is to offer the patient an explicit summary of your perception of his or her needs or expectations.

If you take the sort of history and facilitate the sort of communication that puts you in a position where you can summarize with confidence, you will find yourself becoming more insightful and more economical.

3. HANDING-OVER

– making sure the patient is happy with the outcome of the consultation.

Every general practice consultation results in some form of management plan. This may be implied or expressed, precise or vague, clinical or managerial, immediate or long-term, doctor- or patient-centred.

Reaching and ‘handing over’ an acceptable management plan may involve strategies, and ‘gift-wrapping’ – expressing your plan in terms to the patient.

Otherwise compliance may suffer.

4. SAFETY-NETTING

– planning for the unexpected.

Both you and the patient will feel better if you acknowledge that general practice is the art of managing uncertainty, and things don’t always go according to plan.

Your confidence will benefit if you qualify your management plan by asking yourself three questions:-

* If I’m right, what do I expect to happen?

* How will I know if I’m wrong?

* What would I do then?

5. HOUSEKEEPING

– taking care of yourself.

Doctors have needs too; we get tired, bored, irritated, tense and so on.

We have a professional responsibility to do whatever it takes to keep ourselves in the best possible state for each successive patient.

A consultation is not finished until you are ready for the next one.

MINIMAL CUES

Internal Search:

Brief bodily stillness, eyes uplifted to left or right, or downcast, then
returning to normal gaze.

Turbulence:

Noticeable increased agitation or fragmentation in the flow of
speech.